REVEALED: Less than one out of every 100 new homes built in Ireland last year were in Kilkenny

LESS than one out of 100 of the new homes completed in Ireland last year were in Kilkenny.

New figures published by the Central Statistics Office today reveal a total of just 177 new homes were built in Kilkenny in 2018, despite the chronic shortage of housing in the city and much of the county.

Nationally, a total of 18,070 new houses and apartments were constructed last year.

Kilkenny accounted for less than 1% of this total. And the number of new home completions in the city and county in 2018 is less than half the national average in relative population terms.

The severe shortage of housing, particularly in the city, has resulted in soaring rents.

And this trend is set to continue next year as the new supply of new homes won’t start meeting demand before 2023 at the earliest, an analysis of the market by broker Goodbody has warned.

The CSO figures published today represent a sharp increase of 25.4% in the number of new homes completed last year, but the annual output of 18,070 was still about half of the number needed to start reining in the huge rises in rents and house prices of recent years.

Goodbody forecasts that rents will rise 5% this year and by 4% in 2020, representing increases well above those in consumer prices and average pay.

House prices will increase by 6% and 5.3% this year and next, Goodbody predicts, with prices charged for new homes falling increasingly out of reach of the typical first-time buyer.